Cancer gives Birmingham artist a lesson in living

When Lila Graves was diagnosed with cancer at 25 and told she had only months to live, she didn't know what to do but paint.

Twenty years later, Graves is still painting, and though her images are bright and full of fun, she says it's still keeping her focused.

"Now I choose to embrace each day as a gift and a blessing. Instead of dying of cancer, cancer helped me learn how to live," she said.

Graves will be one of the artists featured at today's ArtBlink Gala, which raises money for the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Nineteen artists will have 90 minutes to paint, sculpt or otherwise create works that are then auctioned off to guests.

Graves, a resident of Alexander City, said she loves doing ArtBlink because the doctors there are always shocked to hear her story of living through a cancer that few survive.

"They look at me like they're looking at a ghost," she laughed. "I love it. It's just such a celebration."

Graves was not long out of art school when she discovered she had stage IV malignant melanoma, with cancer in seven lymph nodes that required a dramatic procedure called neck dissection. Her doctor said she had six months at most, and her family started to say its goodbyes.

Graves couldn't take it. She fled first for Birmingham and then, as soon as she was finished with several months of treatments, for an artists' haven she loved in Mexico. There, battling with her demons, she decided to become a living angel rather than waiting for death. She spent two weeks wearing a pair of makeshift wings.

Soon after, she discovered that against all odds, her surgery and immunotherapy had worked and she was cancer-free. She later wrote a book about the experience called "White Wings" that's a mix of words and pictures.

"Everything in my life is symbolic," she said. "I do these personal icons that describe my life. Everything I paint is a symbol of something else."

Today, that means pictures of a retro raygun that she uses to mentally zap her problems or a still life with zinnias that represents a dear friend. Even if viewers don't know the story behind a picture, the truth shines through, she said.

"When you look at it, it'll evoke something," Graves said. "It connects emotionally. Even if somebody doesn't know the story, it's the artist's energy that goes into it that will read years and years later."

She had another scare in 2002, when she was pregnant with her younger daughter, but it turned out to be hormones instead of cancer.

Her girls, Lucy and Bea, are 11 and almost 10. She now pours her energy into them, her work and her other relationships.

"Cancer is nothing but a word, six letters sitting next to each other," Graves said. "All I know how to do is paint."

ARTBLINK GALA

What: Nineteen artists will create works in 90 minutes and sell them off
at ArtBlink Gala 2012 to benefit the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday.Where: Kirklin Clinic.
More info: The black-tie-optional event costs $150 per person and
includes cocktail dinner, a band and dancing. Learn more at
www.uab.edu/artblink.